If you’re a soap user like me, you can relate to this age-old problem. . . showering with a sliver. Yep. . . that small, slippery remnant of soap that lingers in your soap dish way past its time. I often use a sliver of soap until the last possible moment when it melts down to a one-dimensional, flat-earth slice. That’s when the problems begin.
No matter how hard I scrub, a sliver produces hardly any lather.
I’m never sure my tiny sliver gets me clean. But my thrifty mindset to squeeze every penny from the shrinking soap bar spurs me on to use it until the end! Sometimes I even stack up my slivers in an attempt to merge them together into a whole bar of soap! A sliver of soap can also take on a life of its own, easily slipping out of my hand and disappearing on the shower floor.
But ahhhhh. . . there’s nothing quite like opening up a new bar of soap. It’s so new, full, fresh, fragrant, and easy to hold. It creates luscious lather to thoroughly clean my body.
Are you wondering where I’m going with this?
Jesus Christ is like a full bar of soap! He provides newness of life! Jesus Christ is able to remove our filthy, dirty sin to leave us perfectly clean. He’ll never disappear or dwindle away.
…let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Hebrews 10:22.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 (NASB)
And to think, we sometimes cling to our little slivers of life when we can have fullness beyond measure right at our fingertips. No more clinging to our hopeless little ‘slivers’ of being good enough and trying harder to please God; those will never wash us clean. But God’s Word says we are amply supplied with His fullness.
But I have received everything in full and have an abundance; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.
Philippians 4:18 (NASB)
God is so patient with us when over and over we fail to tap into His fullness. I can relate to how God might feel when I see my children, family members, and friends consumed with the distractions of the world, and I ache for them to focus on the “one thing,” Jesus Christ, who can fill their voids and provide spiritual fullness.
But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:41-41
In other situations, I rely on the ‘slivers’ of my own meager and self-focused efforts, and I miss out on what God has for me. Instead, I should simply pray and trust God to handle the situation. All I need to do is symbolically grab a new bar of soap and access the fullness of God. His Word provides so much truth about His abundant grace, His full joy, and the rich life available in Him.
For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. John 1:6 (NASB)
You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever. Psalm 16:11 (NASB)
And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Ephesians 1:22-23 (NASB)
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13 (NASB)
The next time you shower with a sliver, let it be a reminder to take hold of God and His fullness. Recognize that He is all you need.
…and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:19 (NASB)